Commissioners Move Forward on Farmington Fire House Project

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners put a in motion Tuesday, agreeing to begin the first major construction study on a site for the facility in Farmington.

Commissioners hired the architecture design firm Precision Planning to conduct the preliminary study for $12,900 on a location off Old Farmington Road, not far away from the town's old firehouse.

Precision Planning will also incorporate a study of traffic volumes along Old Farmington Road as part of the plan, after a group of several residents voiced concerns that the new firehouse would require the county to eventually knock down trees and widen the road in front of their homes.

The traffic evaluation will include “a review of right-of-way records, pavement widths and safe passage of two-way traffic in the immediate vicinity of the proposed station,” according to County Administrator Alan Theriault.

“This does not include a traffic study per se,” Theriault said. “It's virtually impossible to do a traffic study with average daily trips when it's a volunteer fire station and their response is in the case of fires.”

Dennis Loss, a Farmington resident, told commissioners Old Farmington Road should either be widened or turned into a one-way street because the location for the new station isn't as accessible as the old station, located off Salem Road and U.S. Highway 441.

“I think it really would be necessary to widen this road and I think it would be unfair for the people who live on that road to have their front yards taken away,” Loss said. “I just think you ought to think about that...the other site had multiple directions to be able to get to it, this one doesn't.”

The Board of Commissioners ultimately decided to purchase the new property after they couldn't come to an agreement on a piece of property for sale near the old station, commissioner Chuck Horton said.

“There was a lot of effort on behalf of the commission and staff to try to keep that fire station at that location, but there was not enough property there and we have got to have a place where we can put the modern equipment that we're buying,” Horton said.

In other business, commissioners:

• Approved a special use request for of God to expand its sanctuary, gymnasium, administrative offices and parking.

• Approved two employee .

• Denied Ninth District Opportunity, Inc., a federally funded energy assistance program, a seven-month lease for office space at the Oconee County Government Annex. Last year, the program assisted 300 people by helping them to pay their utility bills. Commissioner Chuck Horton made a motion that the county not enter into a lease agreement with the assistance program because there are several private property owners that could offer space for lease.

• Approved a request from the to waive sewer connection fees at a cost of $7,200, for nine properties located in the Watkinsville Industrial Park.

• Approved change orders to the project at a cost of $623,740.

• Approved the Senior Citizens Transportation Contract from the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission for reimbursement up to $4,933.

• Approved the application for the “Teardrop Metric Century Bike Ride,” for September 17, 2011.

• Approved the creation of a street light tax district for Meridian Subdivision.